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"BRING NO MORE TEA LEAGALY IMPORTED FROM ENGLAND" (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--PRELUDE.) Hewes, Josiah. Letter instructing his fellow merchants to resist the Tea Act. Autograph Letter Signed to Samuel and William Vernon of Newport, RI. One page, 12 x 7 1/4 inches, plus integral address leaf, marked as delivered "pr the Betsy Wightman"; minimal dampstaining, small seal tear on address leaf. Philadelphia, 16 and 18 October 1773
Josiah Hewes was a Philadelphia merchant. On the day he wrote this letter, a meeting of the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty was held at Independence Hall which resolved to actively resist the hated Tea Act, and prevent further shipments of taxed tea from landing in their port. This resolution directly influenced the leaders of the Boston Tea Party two months later, and also led to the lesser-known Philadelphia Tea Party on 25 December. Hewes sent this message to the Vernon brothers, Rhode Island merchants with whom he had a longstanding trade relationship, in an effort to spread the Tea Act resistance to other ports: "Today the inhabitants meet to consider what is to be done when the tea arrives from England. It will not be landed. I hope your coasters will bring no more tea leagaly imported from England. Sum has been brought, but I hope will not be discovered. If it should, will make great uneasiness. By this hint I mean to serve you and am with the greatest regard yours assuredly, Josiah Hewes." The Vernons were already by this point well-known patriots, and resistance to British rule was already underway in Rhode Island; in the previous year's Gaspee Affair, colonists had looted a British customs vessel. This slightly cryptic message from Hewes can thus be interpreted as an effort to include the Vernons in the latest anti-British conspiracy.
